The issue here is some criticism of how best to encourage civilized discourse with regard to a ‘minimum length’ for replies. This is a topic you dealt with at-length in a great blog post: Complaint-Driven Development
I had an issue of users complaining about the minimum reply and some protested by writing “extra words to reach the minimum” in each post
The stock setting is a 20-character minimum. Using a 10-character quota lowered a barrier to participation while still making the point that meaningful replies are encouraged.